Moonlit Sands
by ladychris07
Summary: What if Princess Serenity never met Prince Endymion on her first visit to Earth? What if she met Egypt's King of Games instead? Will he corrupt the innocent Moon Princess or will she get him to change his ways? Rated M for later chapters
1. The Beginning

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Princess Serenity, Queen Serenity or any of the sailor scouts. They all belong to Naoko Takeuchi. I also do not own Pharaoh Atem and company, they belong to their respective creator as well.

Princess Serenity walked through the palace gardens of the Moon Kingdom. It was her eigthteenth birthday, and as usual for special occasions, her mother Queen Serenity was holding a huge ball at the palace to celebrate. The princess however, after making her required appearance, quickly snuck away to the gardens. Her reason for going to the gardens wasn't the usual expected reason of going to smell the flowers. No, her reason was very special for it was in the gardens that the young princess got the best view of the planet Earth. The Lunar princess was very curious about Earth for she had never been as it had been forbidden for the Lunarians to go to Earth. Every night, she gazed at the wondrous blue planet wanting to go and explore.

"Happy birthday Princess Serenity." The senshi of time, Sailor Pluto, walked up behind the princess.

"Thank you Pluto." She looked over her shoulder at the older woman before looking back at Earth once more with a wishful sigh.

Sailor Pluto looked at the young princess with a soft smile. "I know what you're wishing and because it's your birthday, your mother and I have agreed to let you go. Now..."

The older woman was cut off by the happy squeals of the princess. "Really? Thank you! Thank you!" She hugged her friend tight. "Whatever did you do Puu to get Mother to agree?"

Sailor Pluto smiled, mentally deciding not to tell the excited girl that it was the Queen who had done the convincing. She then slipped a small chain necklace around the princess' neck. "This necklace has the key you need to transport between here and Earth."

Serenity looked down at the chain, touching the key gently before looking back up at Pluto. "Thank you again." She said as she grinned. She couldn't wait to leave for Earth. "Finally I'll get to see Earth's beauty up close and all the people."

Seeing the eagerness in the Princess' eyes, Pluto took this moment to speak up. "Now you must promise to transport back home as soon as things look bad. Your safety is still a priority Serenity." She then held out a silver cloak to her. "Wear this cloak. You can't be sure what conditions you'll find once you get there."

Princess Serenity nodded, taking the cloak and putting it on before grasping the key. "I promise to return as soon as things look the worst." With one of her legendary 'light up a room' smiles, Serenity pulled the hood up just as the key activated. In a flash of light, she was gone from the moon.

Pharaoh Atem stood just outside of his throne room. He looked into the night sky and sighed softly. He wondered what it was like outside of the palace. He looked at the stares and smiled slightly. They seemed to shimmer by themselves that evening. Suddenly he felt something fall onto him, causing him to crash into the ground. "Ouch that hurt...What in the name of Ra fell on top of me?" He sat up, rubbing his head and looked at what had fallen on him. It was a young woman, with long blond hair, who currently seemed to be unconscious. He had no idea how she'd gotten there. He stood up, staring at the lovely woman on the ground. He wondered what he could do with her. "Guard!" A few moments later a guard came rushing over to him. He pointed at the young woman. "Take her inside to the room next to mine. Do not wake her and do not allow anyone but myself in the room."

As the guard did as Atem instructed, the Pharaoh turned back to look at the sky, wondering where the woman came from and just who was she. He had yet to get a really good look at her for any identifying symbols that might give away her origins.

For now, he would keep her safe, at least until he knew more about her. Partly because that would be his duty as Pharaoh, partly because he doubted he'd be able to get her out of his mind.


	2. Official Meeting

As the night was still young when Atem left the throne room, he decided to check on his unknown guest. The guard from earlier was posted outside the door. "Has she awoken yet?" He asked of the guard.

"I'm afraid I do not know my Pharaoh. If she has, she has remained quiet." The guard replied slightly apologetically, obviously feeling guilty for not thinking to check on the woman as well as fearful of the Pharaoh's wrath.

Normally the Pharaoh would have immediately passed judgement for failure to do such a thing, however, he knew it was unfair. After all, the guard was following his orders and not once did Atem give an order for the guard to check for when she awoke. In fact, if he thought about it, Atem realized the guard would have disobeyed his order not to let anyone in the room but himself if the guard had checked on her.

Inwardly Atem groaned. Since when did he think out about whether or not his decision to punish a servant was unfair. What was this woman doing to him to cause such a change in him already and he didn't even know her name? Instead of commenting aloud, he nodded to the guard before stepping inside the room. Closing the door behind him, he turned towards the bed and his eyes widened in shock.

Not only was the young woman awake, but she had obviously removed her cloak, revealing beautiful golden locks in a pool surrounding her as she sat in the bed. Her light blue eyes held curiosity but also a slight tinge of fear as she looked back at him. Atem was in absolute awe at the young woman who clearly was around his age even though her eyes also seemed to hold a wisdom beyond her years along with a simple innocence.

"Hello there." He greeted, giving her as soft and reassuring a smile as was possible for someone who was normally feared by all. He slowly walked closer to the bed. "I am Pharaoh Atem, ruler of this land." As he stopped a short distance from the bed, his stance held that royal air to it. "May I ask who you are?"

The young woman nodded, having relaxed some after seeing the reassurance in his smile. "Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom." She bowed in respect the best she could from her spot on the bed. "A pleasure to meet you Pharaoh." The crescent moon mark of her lineage clearly visible now. "May I ask what this land is?"

"Of course Princess." He bowed to her in return. Of course he had heard of the legendary royal family of the moon. Every ruler on Earth had heard of them, especially since the Earth had attempted to join the Silver Alliance. He also knew of the power the Silver Alliance held and knew that to ally with them would bring considerable amount of protection, not that Egypt really needed it under his rule but it never could hurt. "You are in the land of Egypt and this is my palace. This room is next to my own. Do not hesitate to ask anything of me."

"Thank you for your hospitality. I hope you won't mind but I'll probably be asking many questions about Egypt seeing as this is my first time to Earth." She unconsciously fingered the key around her neck as she thought of those she left back at home.

Atem noticed the simple gesture and decided to use that as a conversation point. "What brings you to Earth, Princess?" He would have understood if she didn't want to tell him because it wasn't really his business but if she was due somewhere else, he sure didn't want her to be in the wrong place. No matter how attracted he was to her. And he was very attracted to her for good reason. She was beautiful and any man would be lucky to have her.

"A birthday present from my mother." She smiled at the thought and noted to herself to thank her mother whenever she returned to the moon. "Today's my birthday and she finally decided to let me visit Earth by help of this key around my neck." She beamed with pride as she showed off the key.

"Well then happy birthday Princess." He smiled, a bit more warmly than before. "I apologize that you had to spend so much of it stuck in this one room. I'll take you on a tour of the palace in the morning to make up for it."

"That would be pleasant." She yawned, covering her mouth. "Excuse me Pharaoh, but I do believe I must get some sleep." She settled down into the bed, getting more comfortable

"Of course Princess. The guard outside your door will direct you to my room should you need me. I'll send someone to tend to you in the morning. Good night." With another smile, he headed out the room. He then nodded to the guard outside the room who bowed in return. "I want someone posted here at all times until further notice. If she requests, she is to pointed to my rooms."

The guard nodded. "Yes Pharaoh."

Atem then walked down the hall to his own room where he knew already he would be too busy thinking of the Moon Princess to sleep.


	3. Thoughts of the Princess

Meanwhile, said Moon Princess was being kept awake by her thoughts of the Pharaoh. He had only just left the room and her mind was full of thoughts about him. So many things different about him that she hadn't expected. Sure she hadn't been sure what to expect of the people of Earth when she had left for the blue planet. But the Pharaoh was the furthest from her expectations.

His dark brown skin was a definite contrast to her pale complexion. She wondered what it was that darkened him so. What type of land was Egypt that could cause its ruler and possibly its people to be dark in complexion.

Then of course there was his hair. Up in all those spikes and on top of that, it was multicolored. Sure she'd seen people with different colored hair. Her guardian, Princess Mercury had blue hair. But she wasn't used to seeing more than one color at a time to people's hair. Thinking about his hair brought another thought. She wondered what happened if it got wet. Whether it would stay spiky or if it would just get weighed down by the water and flatten out.

Of course this way of thinking led her to think not so innocent and completely unladylike thoughts about the young Pharaoh. Thoughts of him topless and wet, which of course had her visualizing him with water dripping down. Just these simple thoughts had her blushing very noticeably, or at least it would be noticeable if anyone else had been in the room with her right then.

Realizing how far her thoughts were going, she shook her head in an effort to clear her mind of them. _Get a grip Serenity, _she thought, _There's no way he's interested in you like that. _She had picked up on the darkness surrounding him, a similar darkness to what she had noticed surrounding her friend, Princess Saturn.

However, it didn't stop her from hoping that maybe he would be interested in her that way. Hoping that she would be the one to lift the darkness from around him. Hoping that things would end up this way even though a small part of her knew that it couldn't and wouldn't be that way. For now, as she drifted off to sleep, she decided to make the best of things and see where her heart led her.


	4. Thoughts of the Pharaoh

Atem was being kept up by a similar train of thought. He had seen the hints of wisdom in her eyes. Yet he wondered what it was that made the innocent princess want to visit Earth so badly. Surely she had heard the stories of all the wars Earthlings had. The stories of how they killed each other over things as little as how they looked at each other.

He was surprised that she had seemed to not even know the stories of how merciless he himself was. Surely Queen Serenity wouldn't have kept her only daughter ignorant of the dangers, would she? He doubted it. Then he thought of the fear he had seen in her eyes. How quickly it had gone away after he had introduced himself. She had only been afraid of him because she hadn't known who he was. Even so, from the moment he saw her he hated seeing the fear in her eyes and wanted to never put that in her eyes again.

That alone was not normal for the Pharaoh, who usually didn't care whose eyes he put fear into. But yet, he cared about whether or not he scared the princess. It had nothing to do with potential wrath of the Moon Kingdom and its allies either. Could it be, that he was falling for the Moon princess?

He could definitely say that he wanted to touch her. That flawless pale skin of hers just had to be soft to the touch. Those pink lips of hers definitely looked soft and were just begging to be kissed. Her golden locks looked as though they had been kissed by Ra himself, yet they also seemed to go on forever. Her innocent blue eyes reminded him of the calm flowing Nile. The only difference being that he could happily get lost in her eyes forever. That would be assuming she would give him the chance.

But he was getting ahead of himself here. Since it seemed she would be staying a while, he'd have plenty of time to get to know the princess better. Well provided pressing things don't come up in his duties as Pharaoh. For now he would take things one day at a time and see how that went. For now, he had to try to plan out how he would show her a good time on her first full day. Breakfast followed by the tour of the palace. The tour alone was likely to take plenty of time, a good way to get to know her better and for her to get to know him.

And he did believe in a fair exchange. Serenity would be someone different he could talk to other than his priests and his cousin Seth. Already he felt he could relate to her somewhat. Being royalty and the duties that came along with such a role, even if she was still but a princess and he was a Pharaoh.

He shook his head as he laid in bed with a low chuckle. Who was he kidding? There was no way she'd fall for him. There was too much darkness around him, in him. Just as she was full of and surrounded by light. But then again, Atem wasn't one to just give up so easily.

With another chuckle, he closed his eyes. He was going to hope to be up earlier than she would wake so he could send a group of servants to look after her in the morning. With that thought in mind, he closed his eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep.


End file.
